The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Image via Wikipedia

Is an osteopathic physician a medical doctor? Well, it depends on who you ask. An osteopathic physician has a D.O. degree, which is different from the standard medical (M.D.) degree. I’ve commented in this blog several times on the popular internet quack Joseph Mercola, who is an osteopathic physician, and in those blogs I promised to look into the differences and write a post on them. Well, here it is.

Let me start by acknowledging that some osteopathic physicians (DOs) are probably better doctors than some MDs. That’s hard to deny, given that some MDs are outrageous promoters of pseudoscience. (I’m thinking here of Andrew Weil, one of the biggest promoters of “alternative” medicine, and an even bigger promoter of himself. Actually he and Joseph Mercola have a lot in common – both have websites selling all kinds of unproven treatments as well as their books and DVDs.)

Okay, but how does one become a DO, and is the training the same as for an MD? The answer to the first question is easy: there are 26 colleges of osteopathic medicine in the U.S. Most of these are places you’ve never heard of (well, I sure haven't), but three are co-located with reputable, mainstream medical schools (Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Dentistry and Medicine of New Jersey). Still, the vast majority of schools offering an M.D. degree do not offer an D.O.

On the other hand, D.O.s are licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. They can prescribe drugs and even perform surgery. The American Osteopathic Association claims that they are "a separate yet equal branch of American medical care." (The AOA doesn't realize the irony in claiming "separate yet equal," a phrase used to defend the clearly inferior segregated schools in the South in the first part of the 20th century.)

Are they equal? Well, not quite. Osteopathic medicine started out as little more than pseudoscience, based on the mistaken idea that manipulations of the skeleton and muscles – massage, basically – would cure disease. It was invented by Andrew Still in 1874, who made this and many other claims, none of them supported by science. For example, he claimed in his autobiography that he could

shake a child and stop scarlet fever, croup, diphtheria, and cure whooping cough in three days by a wring of its neck.

Today, that particular treatment would likely get you arrested for child abuse. As Stephen Barrett explains over at Quackwatch:

Still believed that diseases were caused by mechanical interference with nerve and blood supply and were curable by manipulation of "deranged, displaced bones, nerves, muscles—removing all obstructions—thereby setting the machinery of life moving."

Thus was born osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT), a practice that has virtually no scientific basis and that is similar in many ways to chiropractic. Unfortunately, claims that OMT works are everywhere on the Internet, even in Medline, which has an entry that was written by a DO.

believe that all parts of the body work together and influence one another. DOs are specially trained in the nervous system and the musculoskelatal system (muscles and bones).

are trained to perform osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT).

Finally, there is data that shows that students enrolling at colleges of osteopathic medicine have lower grades than students entering medical schools, suggesting (though this is not proof, of course) that D.O. schools provide an alternative route to a medical degree for those who aren’t good enough to get into normal medical schools.